With each new month comes a new opportunity for students to learn and thrive in the classroom. This is why I love switching up our center’s activities each month. It allows students to learn and practice skills in a new, hands-on way each month. I find that this helps keep students interested and engaged all year long. I like running my centers in small groups so students can practice important concepts and I can work on more targeted skills within the groups. Each new month brings a new season, holiday, or event that makes it fun and exciting to incorporate into our centers. The best part is, these are super low prep and simple so you don’t have to stress! This is especially important for our December centers because it is already a chaotic time of year! I hope you and your students enjoy these engaging December centers as much as we do!
Low-Prep Centers
Hands-on learning is extremely important in early elementary school. That is why I love centers! It is always a bonus when you can save time and energy on planning and prepping your centers. If you are looking for exciting and engaging center ideas, I’ve got you covered!
These Low Prep December Centers have everything you need and more to engage students through the holiday season. They are packed with fun, skills-based activities your students will love!
These centers can be prepped and ready to go in just a few minutes. Print and laminate cards for easy cleaning and durability, add materials and manipulatives you have around the classroom and you are ready to roll for the entire month!
These centers also include an “I Can” card which helps guide and instruct students through each activity. Can’t beat that!
Math Centers for December
By December things are in full swing in the classroom. This is an exciting and busy time as the holidays are quickly approaching. It is important to keep students engaged and learning right up to Christmas break! These centers will do just that while allowing students to practice skills and build confidence. This December centers bundle comes with 5 engaging math activities. These activities include counting to 10, 1:1 correspondence, make a 10, and counting on.
Christmas Tree Counting Mats
I love to tie in the magic of the holidays with our lessons and activities during the month of December.
These Christmas Tree counting mats are a fun and exciting way for students to practice their math skills. Students will put a specific number of items on the tree according to their counting card, and then total the number of items and place it in the star.
A great way to practice counting and adding, plus so much fun with the Christmas tree theme!
Make a Ten
I love using ten frames as a way to help students grasp number recognition and counting beyond ten.
These are adorable gingerbread-themed ten frames perfect for the holidays. Ten frames provide a great visual representation of numbers 1-10 and beyond. I find them really helpful in teaching teen numbers as well!
Use manipulatives you have on hand or make it even more fun with gumdrops or peppermints, and let students count away! They can also be used to introduce and practice basic addition!
Counting On Cards
These ornament-themed counting on cards help students practice basic counting skills.
These are adorable, colorful cards with bright ornaments perfect for the month of December! Students will practice counting on from a certain number.
Give students a dry erase marker or plastic numbers to fill in each card. Also, this is a great activity for students to work on independently at their desks or in small groups!
Literacy Centers for December
In addition to the math centers, this bundle comes with December Literacy Centers as well.
Much like the math centers, these literacy centers allow students to practice important literacy skills while having fun! Students will work on key concepts such as identifying ending sounds, decoding CVC words, sight word practice, and short E word sort.
Word Family Sort
Word families are a fantastic way to help young students with reading skills, identifying common sounds, and rhyming words. This is a fun activity students will love that helps them practice reading word family words.
These gingerbread-themed cards will allow students to sort short “e” word families. They will look at the words on the cookie sheet and place them in the proper word family oven.
Practicing these important skills will help your student develop blending skills and fluency as they read these CVC words.
Ending Sounds Practice
Ending sounds are an important part of phonemic awareness and need to be studied and practiced often! Students will gain accuracy when they focus on not just the beginning of a word, but the ending sounds as well.
Practicing ending sounds help students comprehend words and connect sounds which helps with reading.
With these word cards, students can practice ending sounds by looking at the image on the train and writing the ending letter on the gumdrop.
Learning ending sounds help students correlate letters of the alphabet, the sounds they make and how they build a word.
CVC Word Clip Cards
Teaching young students how to read small words is an important part of early elementary. CVC words are short words that are easily blended together by students.
It is a great starting skill to practice when teaching basic reading concepts in Kindergarten. CVC words are easy for students to decode and practice but make a big impact when it comes to reading words. Your students can practice identifying CVC words with this clip card activity.
They will simply look at the picture on the cart and clip the correct word or cover it with a manipulative. These adorable cards feature a cute little elf and a picture to go along with each CVC word. A holiday center favorite for sure!
Sight Word Stockings
Sight words are an important skill that we learn and practice all throughout the school year.
These simple words are an important part of building a strong foundation in reading and spelling. With this fun sight word stocking activity, students will choose a sight card, read and write, then add it to the fireplace card.
This engaging holiday sight word activity will have your students practicing important sight words in a fun, exciting way.
December Low Prep Centers
With the hustle and bustle of the holidays upon us, it is nice to have some low prep centers at your fingertips to get you through December.
You can find all these fun, hands-on Low Prep December Centers in my Miss Kindergarten store! Once you get everything printed and laminated, add in any other materials and manipulatives that you need. Most materials you will find you already have on hand in the classroom. And it is that simple, now your students are ready to practice and learn all month long!
Save These December Centers for Later!
Make sure you save these low prep center activities to your favorite classroom board on Pinterest so you can quickly and easily find them whenever you need center ideas!
